Data Sources on Early Childhood Services: National

U.S. Census Bureau’s America’s Fact Finder

The Census Bureau’s Web site is a rich source of easy-to-access statistics on a wide range of demographics and community information. The America’s Fact Finder server provides detailed community fact sheets that can be customized to provide information on a county, township, city, or even zip code.

New American FactFinder
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml

for data fromCensus 2010 and Census 2000

Legacy American FactFinder
http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en

for data from the American Community Survey, the Economic Census, and Population Estimates. Note that this version of the American FactFinder will be discontinued during Fall 2011.

Child Trends Databank

http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org/

A source for the latest national trends and research on 100 key indicators of child and youth well-being, with new indicators added each month. Early childhood indicators include Individualized Education Plans, Repeating a Grade, Head Start, and Teen Births.

Kids Count Data Center

http://datacenter.kidscount.org/Default.aspx
http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/bystate/StateLanding.aspx?state=IL (Illinois)

The Kids Count database contains state-level data for over 100 measures of child well-being, including the measures used in the “KIDS COUNT Data Book” and “ The Right Start for America's Newborns.” This online database allows you to generate custom reports for a geographic area (Profiles) or to compare geographic areas on a topic (Ranking, Maps, and Line Graphs).

NIEER’s The State of Preschool: 2010 State Profiles

Education Commission of the States
http://nieer.org/yearbook/
http://nieer.org/sites/nieer/files/Illinois.pdf (Illinois)

A profile of state-funded prekindergarten programs in the United States.

Contains reports on what states are doing (pulled from its database of news items on state activities), as well as links to selected research and readings and to other Web sites. Preschool data appears to be taken primarily from NIEER's The State of Preschool annual report.

NCCP State Profiles

http://www.nccp.org/profiles/
http://www.nccp.org/profiles/IL_profile_16.html (Illinois early childhood)

The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) provides data on demographics, early childhood (health, care and education, parenting and economic supports), adolescence, and family economic security.

NCSL Early Care and Education Legislation Database

http://www.ncsl.org/IssuesResearch/HumanServices/
ChildCareandEarlyEducationLegislationDatabas/tabid/17619/Default.aspx

This database of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) tracks state legislation related to child care and child care financing, early childhood services, prekindergarten, professional development, home visiting, infants and toddlers, and financing early education.

CSSP POLICY for RESULTS.org

http://www.policyforresults.org/data-center

This database from the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) provides some data on child health, reading levels, and family environment.